Apparel Supply Chain Optimization Focusing on Right Supplier Selection (Published)
To remain competitive in the apparel manufacturing industry, the factory must have to optimize the supply chain. Hence, there is no alternative way to select the suppliers scientifically to minimize the delivery time for the best quality materials. The apparel manufacturing organization has been suffering from delivery issues due to the unavailability of materials in a timely manner. In this paper, the analysis has been focused on the selection criteria of the suppliers to find the right one to place the material’s orders to get it on time and optimize the supply chain in the apparel manufacturing industry. Furthermore, it has been seen the delayed delivery status of the conventionally selected suppliers in the disaster situation. Meanwhile, the results have been found after the placement of the orders to the right suppliers in real-time to get the best outcome. 20% efficiency has been intensified because of the timely inhoused of the materials, which helps to reduce the productivity gap and the smooth supply chain can be maintained due to the right supplier’s selection by the analysis through cost ratio analysis method and dimensional analysis method. Moreover, the vicious cycle of the traditional supplier’s selection has been debated to understand why the conventional selection strategy is not fruitful for the apparel industry. However, the profit-loss analysis has shown the consequences of the erroneous supplier’s assortment. Additionally, there are some notable improvements: 1) After placing orders to the appropriate suppliers, the benefit-to-cost ratio increased by 50%. 2), The delay in delivery of the raw materials has been increased from 60% to 94%.
Keywords: Quality, apparel supply chain, cost minimizing, higher efficiency., on-time delivery
The Impact of Supplies Quality on Universities Performance: A Case Study of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (Published)
The role of Quality supplies in the performance of universities cannot be under estimated. Quality is the driving force in university performance. However its role is greatly affected by having quality systems in the universities. The research sought to assess the impact of quality of supplies on university performance using four indicators; cost reduction, effectiveness, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The study utilized a descriptive study using a survey method and targeted the MMUST fraternity. A sample of 25 students and 25 staffs were administered with questionnaires that had both open and closed questions. 23 students (92%) and 19 staffs (82.6%) responded. The study results using the Chi-squire revealed that quality of supplies impact positively to university performance. The research further recommends that universities should ensure quality of its supplies in order to realize good performance.
Keywords: Chi-Square, Performance, Quality, University
Service Delivery at Fuel Service Stations: An Evaluation of Consumer Satisfaction in Gaborone, Botswana (Published)
The study sought to evaluate consumer satisfaction with regard to fuelling services in Gaborone, Botswana. The importance of four of the five operations performance objectives (Quality, Speed, Dependability and Flexibility) to the motorists was determined. The performance rating of various fuel service stations (FSSs) on the four operations objectives was determined. The aim was to establish if the FSSs were excelling in those operations objectives considered important by the consumer. Results showed that the order of importance of the four operations performance objectives was: Speed (71.9%), Quality (70.2%), Flexibility (59.6%), and Dependability (56.1%). The most important objective for FSSs to excel in is speed. However, FSSs still need to perform reasonably well in the other objectives as their ratings (all over 50%) indicate that they are also important to the customers. The performance ranking for the FSSs was Quality (93.0%), Dependability (91.2%), Speed (87.7%), and Flexibility (57.9%). The FSSs performed better in the Quality and Dependability objectives yet the Speed objective was the most important to the consumers. Significance testing using the Chi Square Test indicate that the strongest relationship between importance and performance exists for the Flexibility objective (Pearsons correlation-Asymp.Sig = .025) and is weakest for the Speed objective (Pearsons correlation-Asymp.Sig = .105). This indicates that FSSs were not excelling in the objective that is most important to the consumer- Speed. FSSs in Gaborone need to improve service delivery by increasing the speed of serving customers.
Keywords: Dependability, Flexibility, Operation, Performance Objective, Product, Quality, Service, Speed